Sun Temples of Egypt - Niuserre's Sun Temple and other Fifth Dynasty Pharaohs

If you take a camel ride down the Giza Plateau, or drive down below Saqqara, you can visit the Sun Temple of Niuserre. It is also called a solar temple.

The Sun Temples were built by the Fifth Dynasty Pharaohs, in addition to the traditional burial Pyramid or mastaba. Borchardt excavated Niuserre's Sun Temple from 1898 to 1902. Here is his drawing of what it looked like in it's glory:

The Sun temple of Niuserre consisted of an upper temple, a processional ramp and valley temple. The upper temple was a enclosed space with a large obelisk constructed of stone blocks and set on a sloped base. The obelisk, as was the case of all obelisks in Egyptian monuments, symbolized the benben, the rock which received the first rays of the sun when the world was created.

Niuserre's temple has a large alabaster sacificial alter. Papyrus records recovered from other sun temples indicated that the sacrifices were ritually connected to the ceremonies the took place at the pharaoh's pyramid. The remains of the alter are seen in the initial photo on this page.

The bas reliefs from the upper Temple are displayed at the Berlin Archeological Museum.

Five of the Fifth Dynasty Pharaohs built Sun Temples. Here is a table of the Pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty and the names of the known Sun Temples:

Toward the end of the Dynasty the cults of Ptah and Osirus began to intrude on the cult of Re, which may explain why this form of monumental building ceased. However, there is much to be said for the difficulty of mustering the funds for completing both a pyramid and a sun temple, especially if the reign was short or economic times were difficult.